


Hearts

by OperaGoose



Series: Boys and Hearts [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Boys Bad At Their Feelings, Boys with feelings, F/M, Gen, M/M, Pining, Sequel, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-01-27 07:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 9,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12577048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OperaGoose/pseuds/OperaGoose
Summary: After the events of Maleficent's computer simulation world, the quest to save the worlds continues. Lea and Riku must deal with Feelings™ in the wake of reunions.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> The field of battle was quiet, a keyblade graveyard at rest once again. It was over. Finally over. Xehanort lay lifeless on a bare patch of ground. An oddly human death for someone who'd played with so much dark magic. Stillness everywhere, the seven heroes of light taking a moment of calm, the thirteen parts of darkness lying still or fading into stardust. 

Terra moved first. He limped painfully over to Xehanort and closed his eyes, dark brown as they hadn't been in decades. “We should bury him.” 

“He deserves to rot.” Riku's voice was a twisted, disgusted sneer. 

“Yeah,” Terra agreed. “But we should bury him.” His voice was calm, reassured. And they would bury him - they were the good guys. They were better than them. 

Riku gave an irritated huff, but stepped forward. “I'll help you.” 

They could have rested. They had all just fought in an epic clash for good and evil, the fate of all worlds in hand. Even as they worked, seven tirelessly toiling to bury the bodies that were left behind, the stars fell from the sky. Worlds that had been separated finally coming to rest together once again. 

Ven wearily made his way over to Saïx. Isa. Whoever he was in death. He reached up to close his eyelids over eyes that were slowly bleeding back to blue. Isa then. 

But before his hand touched, a hand flashed out and gripped his hand in a tight grip, bones grinding together. Sickly yellow eyes focussed on Ven, and an unhinged laugh bubbled up from blood-caked lips. “Roxas.” 

“I'm not…” He trailed off slightly. He was tired. “What do you want, Saïx? You're dying.” 

“I was human once too,” the blue-haired vessel snarled. 

“You gave that up,” Ven reminded him, snatching his hand away from the weakening grip. “You volunteered. You wanted the power, darkness.” 

Saïx slumped back down into the dirt, breathing laboured. The yellow drained from his eyes completely, and blue eyes stared up at the falling sky. “Tell me,” he whispered, his voice brimming with an aching sadness Ven couldn't help but pity. “Did you ever find Lea?” 

Lea? He hadn't thought about the lost redhead in years… 


	2. Running Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's NaNoWriMo so I'm rushing through this for wordcounts.  
> It feels awful and the character voices are off.  
> But oh well. Enjoy.

“Dawn, on your left!” 

“Got it!” The winged sword sliced cleanly through a shadow heartless. 

Between the two of them, they cleaned up quickly. Hefting keyblades on their shoulders, the two of them followed the path back to the safe point. 

“You called me Dawn again.” 

Lea glanced across his shoulder to Riku, and cringed. “Right. Sorry. I’m working on that.” 

“It’s okay, Axel,” he said, shrugging. “I mean, it’s not technically my last name. But I don’t have a last name, so use it whenever.” 

He rubbed a hand through the back of his hair. He knew Riku still remembered their time inside the other world. They all pretended they didn’t - and maybe Sora and Kairi weren’t pretending. He just... he wasn’t ready to talk about it, didn’t know if he ever would be. That year in there, seeing Roxas again... it had torn open old wounds that he hadn’t had time to heal. Made it worse. Their fleeting friendship in the organisation that grew his sickly little heart, that world had made it different. Not only had he now lost Roxas as his best friend, but in a twisted way he’d lost his lover too. 

Roxas had been years younger than him. He’d never thought of his friend in that way. But now those feelings existed in Lea’s heart - and what was left of Axel’s cried out at the loss of him again. 

He knew Riku wasn’t coping well with it either. His relationship with Sora had changed forever - even if the other boy couldn’t remember it. But Sora was still tangled up with Kairi, with their fairy tale true love. How could you compete with that? 

Easy answer was you didn’t. After the computer simulation, he and Riku had been sent to some newly reinstated worlds to get the heartless populations under control. It was hard work, relentless - and it left them no time to think. Exactly how Lea needed to be right now. Maybe Riku did too. 

He knew about working yourself to death to escape the pain in your heart. He hadn’t gone up in flames saving Sora just for the last laugh at the organisation. At least he and Riku had each other to keep from throwing themselves into a fight too out of their depth. 

They opened a tent at the safe point. “Got any munny?” Lea asked, shifting through their bag of food supplies. “We’re out of pretty much everything.” 

Riku sighed. “Some.” Not enough to buy them a decent amount of food anyway. 

“We could always just buy potions,” he offered. They worked to clear up hunger too. As well as injuries. But for now, he dug out half of their remaining jerky and lit up the camp fire with a flick of his eyes in the pit’s direction. 

Before Riku could answer, they were interrupted by an excited barking. Pluto crashed his way into the safe point, doing his best to knock them both over. He had a letter in his mouth, sealed with King Mickey’s crest. But he wanted to play, and it took them both several tries before they could coax it out of the excitable dog’s mouth. 

Lea lay with him by the fire, gloved hand stroking along his smooth fur coat, keeping his nose away from the jerky. He watched Riku, and the unreadable expression as the other read through the contents of the letter. “What’s his majesty say now?” 

“He wants us to come back,” Riku replied. “He says we’re needed.” 

“At the Tower of Mystery?” Lea asked, his brow furrowing with his confusion. “What could they possibly need us for?” 

“Not the tower,” Riku said, passing the letter across the fire to him. 

He raised his eyebrows and nudged Pluto’s nose away from his face so he could read it. “...Castle Oblivion?” He asked, disbelieving. “What’s he want to walk into Organisation territory for?” 

“He and Aqua were checking it out, or so he said in his last letter,” the other replied, frowning and glaring into the flames of the camp fire. “Guess they must consider it safe enough for a visit.” 

“You’ve been to that place,” he replied, agitated. “I was there for basically two months and I didn’t even get a map on all the levels. Xehanort could be hiding inside and we wouldn’t even know it!” 

“Xehanort’s not after us,” Riku replied. “He’s waiting until we have our seven parts of light. He’s still chasing after Sora, trying to get-” He cut himself off and shot Lea a guilty look. “He’s chasing after Sora.” 

“To try and reclaim Roxas. I know.” Annoyed, he pushed Pluto away from him entirely. The dog gave him an offended look and went to curl up in Riku’s shadow instead. “Fuck.” He ran a hand through the hair at the back of his head in an agitated movement. “Are Donald and Goofy going to be there?” And Sora, of course. But just like Riku avoided naming Roxas, he tried not to bring up Sora. They had to co-exist with some sort of peace between them. 

“They’re on their way already,” Riku answered. His face was blank, impossible to read. 

Lea gave a tired sigh. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to go back to Castle Oblivion, and remember everything he’d done there when he hadn’t had a heart to care. He didn’t want to see Sora’s face, older than Roxas had ever got to look, and remember who he wasn’t. He even didn’t want Riku to be upset about having to see Sora again so soon - and wasn’t he a total sap now? 

“We better go,” he conceded. He winced at Riku’s surprised look. “They’d only send someone to come get us. Might as well save everyone a lot of trouble and just go.” 

“In the morning,” Riku offered. “Then we can pack up and go.” 

Lea nodded - and then the other nodded back. Solidarity. 

At least now they had each other’s backs. 


	3. Castle Oblivion

There was something just _off_ about the castle when they reached the world. Lea couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something different about it. Almost a taste in the air. He watched as Riku raised his nose to the air and gave a delicate sniff. A slight furrow in his brow told Lea that he sensed it too. 

They gave each other a look, and summoned their keyblades in precaution. Pluto barked and raced towards the front doors - and that was a safe enough indication that it wasn’t a total trap. But they were both still wary. Lea tugged the hood of his black coat up, so he could go by better undetected. Riku looked almost jealous for a moment, then he took a deep breath and walked up to the front doors. 

Inside was as stark white and confronting as ever, but the lack of colour was broken up by the red-yellow-black colours of Sora’s childish clothes, and the delicate pink of Kairi’s beside him. The two of them jolted up when they heard footsteps, and grinned as they saw their friend. 

“Riku!” Kairi called eagerly. “You’re back!” 

Lea tried not to feel offended they weren’t bothering to greet him as he crossed to lean, arms folded, against one of the walls. They were never really his friends, were they? The only friend he’d ever really had as Lea was Isa. 

His heart gave a sharp twang of pain at the name. _Isa_. His only friend, gone forever to their enemies. Or was he the enemy now? He was fighting on the side of the light. Every one of his new allies would consider Isa an enemy. But then again, in Isa’s eyes, Lea would be the one to have betrayed him. They’d pursued the Organisation together, after all. Back when they were young and stupid and hungry. 

The rapid babble of chatter between the three islanders finally came to a halt, and Lea all but cleared his throat to get their attention. “The King sent for us.” 

Kairi settled him with a mistrustful look. Despite their training together, his protecting her - even if he wasn’t successful - from Maleficent’s forces, she still didn’t trust him. He tried hard not to blame her. As Axel, he’d threatened and kidnapped and lost her. It didn’t make much difference to them that he wan’t a nobody any more. He was still that person, in their eyes and in their minds. 

“Us too,” Kairi answered, her tone polite but unfriendly. “We have to wait here for Master Aqua. She’s the only one who can travel through the castle properly.” 

Lea just shrugged and closed his eyes, giving a dismissive wave. “I should go back to our mission. I can’t see why there’s any reason I’d need to be here.” 

“Actually, Lea,” came the King’s voice, passing through a set of opened doors. There was a somehow familiar woman walking alongside him. She had short blue hair and a mature face, like one who had the weight of the worlds on her shoulders from far too young an age. That, he assumed, was Aqua. “It’s really you and Sora that we need here.” 

Riku looked serious and grim beside the younger two. “Is this about the boy Sora has in his heart?” 

_Roxas!_ His heart immediately cried. But he battened it down. They meant Ventus. Nobody had seen fit to fill him in about that, but Riku had mentioned on their mission away that there was a few people residing in Sora’s heart. A girl with dark hair, Roxas and a boy named Ventus. 

He knew that name, and had a fuzzy memory of someone he’d fought and befriended in Hollow Bastion. Over ten years ago now. He had the vague sense he maybe looked a little bit like Roxas. He wondered: how much older would they find him? Would it hurt to see someone so similar to Roxas, but grown up? At an age Roxas would never become? 

He huffed and folded his arms. “What’s that got to do with me?” He grumbled. 

Aqua gave him a long, serious look. “If you’ll come with me, you’ll understand.” 

Lea was sure she’d meant it to be reassuring, but it felt a little threatening. He wasn’t being given a choice here - he was going to see this Ventus person with Sora. He glanced back at Riku, a silent communication in their eyes. Lea letting him know he needed backup - or in this case, company, and Riku’s compliance. 

The six of them headed into the castle. It still made Lea’s head feel blurred at the edges, like it always had with the Organization. But Master Aqua looked completely unaffected as she expertly navigated stairscases and corridors until they came to a large set of double doors, sealed closed with a shiny, crystalline shield of magic. 

The King and Master Aqua both raised their keyblades to unseal the door, and then opened them to let everyone in. Lea lingered behind everyone else, giving in to his reluctance, but he was taller than them all and when he stepped in, he saw what they were looking for. 

“...Roxas?” He choked, uncertain. 

No, he told himself. Ventus. 

But when he’d remembered that Ventus had looked a little bit like Roxas, he hadn’t recalled that they looked _exactly the same_. He shivered as a memory bubbled up in his head, from the fake world, sailing back to Nemo in that last day. Roxas looking at him seriously as he admitted that wasn’t the name he’d been given as a child. How he’d grown up _Ventus_. 

“He looks a lot like Roxas,” Riku offered, unhelpfully. But at least he said something. 

“This is Ven,” Master Aqua said, crossing over to kneel beside the large chair. The chair that contained a slumped ~~Roxas~~ Ventus, chest hardly moving with his breath. “He’s been asleep for a long time.” 

“I don’t see how I’m supposed to help,” Lea muttered, pressing his back to a wall and folding his arms protectively across his chest. “So, I met him once when I was a kid. What’s that got to do with anything?” 

Everyone turned to look at him, but it was Aqua’s gaze that was soft. “You’ve met Ven?” 

He nodded, avoiding everyone’s gaze and trying not to looked at the slumped, lifeless body that resembled his former friend ~~and simulated lover~~ so much. “At Hollow Bastion.” 

“Hollow...?” Aqua asked, confused. 

“Radiant Garden,” Sora corrected again, his voice bright and eager. “They’re calling it that again.” He tilted his head at Lea. “I didn’t know you were from that world! You’d know Leon and all the guys then!” 

He frowned, trying to remember. “Are you talking about Squall Leonheart?” He echoed, the only person whose name even resembled Leon at all. “Yeah, sure. He’s a couple years older than me and went to that big fancy school. What’s he got to do with anything?” 

Kairi just touched Sora’s arm and shook her head. “Another time, Sora.” 

The little brunet nodded, and seemed disappointed at being stalled. Then he turned back to Master Aqua and the king. “So why do you need me and Axel?” 

“Lea,” he corrected - instinctive and tired. Was it so hard for them to get his damn _name_ right? It was one syllable. 

“We finished analysing the data that Ansem the Wise left us,” - _who?_ \- “and with the information Tron” - again, _who_? - “uploaded from Radiant Garden, and what Aqua knew from her time before the World of Darkness...” 

Lea shifted. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to hear this. 

“When Ven fell,” Aqua said, her voice wavering, “his heart was weak. It found shelter in Sora’s.” 

“But when Sora lost his heart in Hollow Bastion and became a heartless, his Nobody still had the remains of Ventus’s heart in it,” the king finished. 

Lea gave a bitter laugh. It made sense. Roxas had always been that little bit different. Felt too much for someone who wasn’t meant to feel at all. 

_Are you really sure that you don’t have a heart?_

_I don’t know... I can’t just look inside._

_Yeah. I guess not._

“Roxas wasn’t Ventus,” Lea said stubbornly, realising everyone was staring at him for his outburst. “I met them both, trust me.” 

They still looked skeptcal - of course they did. Trust me, he’d said. As if they would. 

Riku nodded. “I saw them both in Sora’s heart,” he agreed, “they were two people.” 

“We’re not saying they’re the same,” the King answered calmly. “But Roxas built his heart out of Ven’s. Enough that we think Ven can awaken if we move their heart into him.” 

Lea stood up, hood falling back, as he glared at all of them. “You want to take Roxas’s heart and give it to someone else?” He demanded angrily. 

King Mickey looked guilty and opened his mouth to explain. 


	4. Upon The Tower

“Thought I’d find you up here.” 

Lea glanced back over his shoulder as Riku stepped around the wall, moving to sit away from him on the edge of the clock tower. “How’d you get here?” He asked, not accusing. Just curious. 

“Mickey let me borrow a Star Shard,” he answered, tugging the hood of his jacket up over his head to block out the wind. “They think I can talk you into it,” he commented. 

Lea scoffed in disbelief. “You can _try_.” 

“I didn’t say I agreed with them,” he said idly. “Just what they think.” 

The redhead looked at his friend - the closest thing he had to a friend, anyway - with a grim expression. “Do you agree?” 

Riku tilted his head back, looking up at the sky instead of out at the sunset. “None of them really know Roxas,” he commented. “Never spoken with him, watched him live his life,” he continued. He glanced aside at Lea. “He’s an idea for them, not a living, breathing person. Mickey and Aqua... they knew _Ventus_. They feel responsible for what happened to him. In their eyes, he’s the real person.” 

“And Sora?” Lea asked, looking away from him to stare into the red light of the sunset. 

“He feels guilty about trapping people in his heart,” Riku replied, “he’s only just learned about it. He has to do something to make up for it.” 

He sighed in defeat, glancing down at the small popsicle stick in his gloved hand. Pale wood with the word ‘WINNER’ stamped into it. The only tangible reminder he had of his time with Roxas. “I remember Ven,” he said reluctantly. “He seemed like a good guy. My age, but heavy with age and experience. A good fighter, too. Kicked my ass.” He ran his gloved thumb over the words. “It’s not fair he’s... asleep, or whatever that is. He should get to wake up.” 

“But...?” Riku asked, his tone soft. Concerned, and understanding all at once. 

He sighed again, clenching the wooden stick in his fist. “I know Roxas isn’t coming back. He’s Sora’s Nobody, he’s not meant to be separate. But...” He closed his eyes, secure in the darkness from the look of pity he didn’t want to see in Riku’s eyes. “I thought... if I could be here, if I could help Sora... It would be like being with him, even a little bit. The same heart.” 

“And if Ventus gets his heart back...” 

“They say it was Ven’s heart he had, who he built his own heart from. That part of Roxas... the part that was my friend, the part that _loved me_ in Nemo, they take that away. He wouldn’t be Roxas any more, and then I’ve lost him again.” 

“Won’t he?” Riku asked, watching him carefully. “He could be a lot like the Roxas from Nemo.” 

Lea cringed. “I thought we’d silently agreed to not talk about that time.” 

The other shrugged. “I’m just saying, Axel. His name used to be Ven there, and he became Roxas.” 

“It wouldn’t be the same. _He_ wouldn’t.” 

Riku stood up, looking down at him in the fading light. “Neither are you,” he reminded him. He took out what Lea assumed was the Star Shard and looked down at him. “You better come back to the castle. They’ll send Sora out next.” 


	5. First Failure

“I don’t understand what you think I can do,” Lea said sullenly, leaning against the wall and pointedly not looking towards the chair where Ventus was slumped. 

“You’re going to be a focal point for Sora to call out Ven’s heart,” Master Aqua explained, standing carefully beside the chair. 

“We tried it with Riku, but it didn’t work,” Sora explained. “He wasn’t close enough to Roxas.” 

Well of course not. Riku fought him once, nothing compared to the near year they spent together. “So what do I do?” He demanded, peeling off his gloves. 

The four of them ended up holding hands. One of each of Sora and Ven’s hands in Aqua and Lea’s. They closed their eyes, and Mickey said something about following their hearts to feel the energy between them - the link that tied them to Ventus and Roxas’s heart. He couldn’t find anything, what was he supposed to be feeling? Sora’s hands were warm, and the blond’s were too cold. 

As he focused on the coldness of his hand, warming under his grip, he felt a weird feeling in his chest. Almost like a stream, flowing slightly down his arm into Ventus’s. 

“This is stupid,” he announced. 

“Lea,” Sora scolded impatiently. 

“Perhaps we should stop. I don’t feel anything,” Master Aqua replied, her voice filled with disappointment. 

Lea gladly dropped both the boys’ hands and stepped away. “Told you it was stupid.” He muttered, tugging on his gloves again. He went to lean against the wall, tucking his hands under his folded arms. His hand still tingled where it had been holding Ventus’s. 

“We’ll have to try it some other way,” Aqua said, determined. “The King and I will look over the research notes again. Why don’t the two of you get some sleep?” 

He didn’t sleep just yet. He tracked down Riku - okay, he had Aqua take him to where Riku was located, and then the two of them headed out to check on their territories. The heartless had been multiplying again, but it was easy work to cut them down to size. Then they camped out at the safe point in the Dwarven Woodlands and got some well-needed sleep. 

“I just can’t get proper rest when I’m in Castle Oblivion, you know?” Riku said, as they set up camp. 

“I know,” Lea replied, with full understanding. The place had too many memories, too much lingering within its blank white walls. He tried his best to sleep, knowing tomorrow it would be another attempt, another heartache. 


	6. Failed Attempts

“Just you and Sora this time,” Master Aqua explained, looking tired and weary. These constant attempts where getting to her. “You knew them both, maybe it will be easier with one focal point.” 

Lea just grunted, removing his gloves and going to sit down beside Ventus’s bed. They’d moved him from the chair, to get him comfortable. Not that it even mattered. The cushioned stool had grooves from his ass by now. 

He waited until Sora had Ventus’s right hand, and offered out his other before taking their hands. He closed his eyes. The same liquid flowing feeling slipped through his arm and into Ventus’s sleeping form. If he let his mind go empty enough, he could almost see it like a river of pale blue light connecting his heart - a mess of tangled colours - to pool in an emptiness in Ven’s chest. 

“Ventus,” Sora called. “Take what is yours from me. Wake up and return to us.” 

In his mind’s eye, he saw the last of the blue light leave his own heart, pulling along a dark blue light like ribbons tied together. But the dark blue was twisted and tangled up in a glowing green light, and as soon as it pulled to hard the lights snapped like a rubber band. Pale blue light slammed back into Lea’s body, leaving only the faintest spark of flickering blue light in Ventus’s chest. 

“Nothing?” Master Aqua asked, her voice disappointed. 

Lea opened his eyes and disentangled his hands, tugging on his gloves hurriedly. 

Sora was shaking his head apologetically. “I’m not connecting with him, I don’t know,” he mumbled. 

She sighed and sat down, taking Ventus’s hands. Her eyes were exhausted, and welled up with tears. “I don’t know what else to try,” she said. “I can’t think of anything else. Why isn’t he waking up?” 

“Maybe it’s me,” Sora said. “It’s not letting him free.” Lea kept silent, looking between them as he took his place against the wall, arms folded. “Maybe I can ask Riku to dive into my heart again,” he offered, touching her shoulder. “Try and wake him up from the inside.” 

Lea shifted. “I know you don’t want to hear this again,” he said. Their eyes turned to him accusingly. “But Ansem had apprentices, you know.” 

Sora glared at him. “We’re not handing Ventus over to Organisation 13!” he protested. 

He remembered when Sora was just a sweet, determined kid. What had happened to him? “Then don’t. But why not bring one of them here,” he offered instead. “They haven’t all turned back to Xehanort’s side. One of them will have a better chance of understanding what’s going on than all of you.” 

Sora raised his chin stubbornly. “No. It’s not safe! None of the nobodies can be trusted!” 

He just stared down at the kid until he figured out what he’d just said. While Sora scrambled to correct himself, Lea pressed a hand to the wall and stepped through into the darkness. He wasn’t dealing with any of that. 

His feet took him to Radient Garden, and he stared when he stepped out of the portal. He’d meant to go back to his and Riku’s territories, but he’d ended up here instead. He half-recognised the place. They’d been restoring and improving it, it wasn’t exactly like he remembered, but the bones were underneath. 

He tugged his hood up and slipped down the side streets, until he found the entrance to the old labs. Ansem’s old office was a lab now, and a familiar figure in a lab coat was busy at the chem station. 

He apparently noticed the hooded figure in the reflection, because he said impatiently: “I’ve told you already Isa, I’m still not interested.” 

Lea slid his hood off. “He’s been visiting you?” 

Ienzo turned to look at him, surprised. “Lea. Never thought I’d see you again.” 

“Don’t tell me you missed me,” he said, making himself comfortable behind the old desk, propping his feet up. 

“I didn’t say that, now did I?” The shorter researcher replied, turning back to his work. “Thought you’d been killed or taken over already. When Even and Dilan disappeared, I thought I was the last one left.” 

“Not for lack of asking, apparently.” He ruffled the spikes at the back of his heart. “You still studying hearts?” 

“Ansem the Wise worked hard on this research. I will complete it.” 

“Huh.” He lowered his feet. “I’ve got a hypothetical.” 

“A hypothetical,” Ienzo replied dubiously. “You might as well ask. The sooner you have your answer, the sooner you can leave me alone to my research.” 

He leaned his elbows on the table, watching him move about. “What if someone lost their heart... but not to a heartless. They didn’t become a heartless or a nobody, and their heart was inside someone else. How would you get it back out?” 

Ienzo slowly stopped his work and turned back to look at him. “Was this person’s heart shattered?” He questioned, eyes narrowed at him thoughtfully. 

“...uh.” He tried to remember back. “Yes?” 

Ienzo set down his beaker. He glanced around the room, then approached him. “You found the Chamber of Waking?” He asked in a low whisper. 

Lea looked innocent. “I don’t know anything about that. It’s a hypothetical.” 

Ienzo gave him an irritable look, looked around again. “Castle Oblivion, yes? Number One personally assigned me the task of finding it while we were there.” His voice was a hushed murmur, as if trying not to be overhead. Did Ienzo really think he was being watched that closely? 

“As if I would go back there,” he replied, his tone dismissive but his face serious. Quieter, he whispered: “back up everything you need. We’ll get you out of here before they come back.” 

“I’ll have to find my research notes for your question,” Ienzo said, loudly, and moved to start packing up his notes. 

In fifteen minutes, they had everything necessary packed up, and Lea shoved a smaller cloak at Ienzo before opening a portal. Sora and the rest were going to kill him for this, but at least they’d stop complaining about Ventus for a while. 


	7. Answers

Ienzo folded his arms, leaning back in his seat to look up at Master Aqua. Lea watched from the wall, back pressed against the cold tile. “I’ve done all I can with the data I’ve been given. There is simply nothing more I can do without more data.” 

Aqua watched him warily. “What sort of data?” 

“I’ve designed a machine that should be able to record and visualise hearts,” he explained. “I can find enough materials around the castle to make it, but if it’s to be put to use, I’ll need to monitor the subject both at rest, and during your different attempts.” 

“No way,” Sora snapped stubbornly. “It’s a trap. He’ll run away with Him and take him back to Xehanort!” 

Ienzo drummed his fingers impatiently, sharing a look with Lea. Yeah, they were both sick of being treated like spies here when they were only helping. “If I engineered the equipment and instructed you how to assemble the scans in the Chamber of Waking, you could bring the data to me here and I could analyse and visualise it.” 

Master Aqua looked at Sora, then at King Mickey. “That’s what we’ll do then.” 

Lea followed her and Ienzo around the castle, picking up enough machinery parts for his scanner things. It was a day or two before Ienzo had engineered it and tested it to his satisfaction before they could set it up in Ventus’s chamber. 

Ienzo needed some time to collect the baseline data, and since that meant there would be no more attempts, Lea took Riku and went off to their territories. 

“Do you think he’s going to figure it out?” Riku asked, as they searched the forest in the Enchanted Dominion for any large clusters of heartless. 

“No idea,” Lea answered dismissively, firing a quick firaga at a couple of shadow heartless lingering in the treeline. “But it should at least give them some more specific information to work with. Instead of broad research.” Riku was quiet for a moment, and glanced back at him. “And it means you won’t have to dive back into Sora’s heart anytime soon anyway.” 

Riku winced slightly. “That obvious?” 

“Not sure if it’s obvious,” Lea replied, “or I just understand you.” 

“Both of those are equally scary,” the other deadpanned. 

He laughed. “You’re not wrong.” 

They were silent for a long moment, setting up the camp at the safe point, staring up the sky. “What will you do if he does wake up?” Riku asked quietly. 

“No idea,” he mumbled. “We’ll have the seven parts of light then - I guess we’ll face the final battle with Xehanort and his darkness.” 

Riku shivered slightly in the night air. “Do you think we’re ready for that?” He asked. 

“We’ll have to be,” he replied, glancing at the fire and making it burn hotter and brighter. “We’ve got three Keyblade Masters - and Sora’s almost as good as a Master. Ventus was pretty kickass. Besides, we have moral righteousness on our sides.” 

Riku closed his eyes. “I could be back home. It feels so far away - like a distant dream. To return to our island, with no more evil to face. Almost like a happy ending that’ll never come.” 

Lea rubbed the hair at the back of his head. “At least you’ve got something to look forward to,” he mumbled. “I suppose I could go back to Radiant Garden.” Not that it had ever felt much like home. He gave a bitter smile. “I could open a flame grill.” 

Riku turned on his side to watch him carefully a moment. “You know... a place like that would do pretty well on Destiny Island.” Lea just stared at him. “Something to think about.” 

The redhead turned away, looking back up at the sky again. “Yeah. Something to think about.” 

They didn’t talk for the rest of the night and in the morning, they were back to their usual banter until Pluto arrived to bring them back to Castle Oblivion. The easy-going mood between them instantly vanished after that. 

Lea insisted they check on Ienzo first. Mostly because he knew what it was like to feel alone amongst this group. They may be the good guys - but they didn’t trust easily. Or at least they didn’t trust former Nobodies easily. 

He had Riku, at least. They weren’t as close as they’d been in Nemo, but they were almost friends here. 

Ienzo had just finished the visualisation of the base data when they came to his rooms. The sight of the monitor, with the ghostly outline of a pale blue heart, pulsing in and out of view, made him shiver. 

He didn’t want to name it - but he didn’t need to. “What is wrong?” Ienzo asked. 

Riku answered: “it looks like the heart monitor from the hospital in Maleficent’s simulation.” 

“Curious,” Ienzo said thoughtfully, but didn’t see fit to question them further. 

Lea stared at the weak little heart, barely there even at its brightest, and felt sad. He had a short burst of memory, feeling Roxas’s lips against his own - and opening his eyes to see his blond lover looking up at something in fascination. But there, reflected in his eyes - with a level of detail he didn’t remember even noticing at the time - was the screen of his own heart monitor. 

A green heart in shards, with blue light filling up the gaps until it was whole again. 

He shook his head clear, clamping down on the memory. He refocused on what was going on in the room with him. 

“...anomaly early in the monitoring,” Ienzo was explaining. He scrolled through the data. “For the first thirty minutes, his phantom heart is significantly stronger, then it drops back down to baseline.” 

“What caused it?” Riku asked. 

Ienzo gave him an irritable look, before it smoothed into a blank expression. “I can only speculate - I don’t have any environmental data. Perhaps Sora was nearby, and his heart was resonating. 

Lea leaned against the wall, waiting for Master Aqua to come bring them back to the Chamber of Waking. His eyes followed the pulsing of the heart monitor, unable to look away from its hypnotic rhythm. 

She appeared and led them silently through the castle to the chamber where Ventus was lying in bed. Sora was already there, talking and laughing with Kairi. They were excited to see Riku, as they always were. He looked softer and happier than he ever did away from them. 

Lea watched them silently. Their friendship was strong, he wondered how quickly resolve if Riku spent some proper time with them. But he wasn’t, was he? He was always running around with Lea instead, away from his problems. Maybe it was time he stopped. 

Lea tugged off his gloves and settled into his usual seat next to Ventus’s bed. It was a while before Sora calmed enough to join him by the bed. 

“Ready?” Master Aqua asked, standing at the end of the bed and gently touching Ventus’s forehead with both hands. “Just like we usually do.” 

Sora took his hand, and then Ventus’s, closing his eyes. Lea followed suit. As he got bored and his mind started to wander, he saw the tangle of lights and the river of blue flowing away, pooling into Ventus. 

“Do you think that’s enough?” Sora asked. 

Lea’s concentration broke, and he peaked one eye open to look at them. He felt an odd twang in his chest and let go of both hands. 

“I’m sure that’ll give Zexion some data to analyse,” Sora said. 

“Ienzo,” Lea corrected flatly. 

“Huh?” Sora blinked at him, confused. 

“His name is Ienzo. Not Zexion. He’s not his Nobody any more. He’s trying to help you, the _least_ you can do is call him by his name.” 

“Lea.” That was Riku’s voice. He sounded soft and reassuring, in an effort to calm him down. 

Lea took a deep breath. “I’ll take the data to Ienzo.” 


	8. Release

Lea was sprawled out on the bed in Ienzo’s room, watching him type away at his machine to configure the data. He’d only questioned the redhead once - when he’d first made himself on the bed. “Aren’t you going off with Riku?” 

After Lea had answered with a dismissive “nah”, that had been the end of it. 

It was hours until Ienzo had visualised the data, and when he had all he gae was a low “hmm” of scientific interest. 

“What is it?” Lea asked. 

Ienzo turned the monitor around so he could look at it. “This is Ventus’s phantom heart,” the researcher explained, pointing to the pale blue dim outline on the screen. “It flares again _here_ , like the previously observed anomaly. Perhaps Sora enters the room at this point. But here -” he sped forward a bit, “- this is when the experiment begins, I assume. Almost instantly the sensors pick up another heart.” 

Lea felt his blood drain out of his face as he watched the monitor. 

“Sora’s heart is very complex,” he heard Ienzo’s voice as if underwater. “I’ve coloured the different energy frequencies in different colours. See?” 

Lea did see. But not exactly how Ienzo thought he did. 

The second heart that appeared on the screen was a mess of colours. Mainly a bright green, it was knitted together by two shades of blue light - the pale blue that was draining towards Ventus’s, and a darker shard of the same colour. And then on one side of the heart there was fiery red, almost like a bruise or... a burn mark. 

Ienzo had called it Sora’s heart - and of course he would. He knew Sora’s heart sheltered multiple others. But Lea recognised the picture on the screen, because he’d been seeing it for months as they tried to give Ventus back his heart. 

“Are you even listening?” Ienzo asked irritably. 

“Huh?” He jolted out of his concentration. “No, sorry. What were you saying?” 

Ienzo sighed. “I was commenting on the fact that it appears Sora’s heart begins to lose some structural integrity as the light transfers. I advise that the hearts need to be disentangled through a different method before Ventus could be safely woken.” 

“Yeah,” Lea said, feeling numb. He stood. “I better go tell the others.” 

Ienzo was happy to be rid of him. 

Who else would be? Everyone but Riku, he was sure. But if he was gone, Riku would spend time with Sora again. Fix the mess that had grown between them. 

Master Aqua looked up as he entered the Chamber of Waking, her expression guarded. “Lea,” she greeted. 

“I have new information from Ienzo,” he commented. His voice sounded strange and distant, even to him. “You should fetch Sora - oh and Riku too. It’ll matter to him too.” 

She agreed, but gave him a wary look as she left the chamber. Lea silently cast a barrier around the door in her wake. It wouldn’t work to be interrupted, now would it? 

He sat on the edge of the bed and took up both hands of the comatose boy in his. “Come on, Ventus,” he mumbled. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind until he could see the lights flowing between them. Their hearts, as he now understood. 

But as the pale blue light began to pull the darker blue - at Roxas’s heart, he was sure - it snapped like a rubber band again until all the light flooded back into his own heart. 

Of course not. 

Ienzo had said a different method was needed. That his heart was too unstable without the others. _Without Roxas’s_ , he thought knowingly. Even if it had been a simulation, Isa had broken his heart. 

_Pathetic_ , he could still hear him saying. _Do you think I would care for you even if I could? I **never** liked you, Lea. Not even a Nobody ever could _ . 

He knew how Roxas had saved him in the simulation, just as he knew it wouldn’t work here and now. There wasn’t the same feeling between them. But what else was he supposed to do? His heart had been stolen by Xemnas, moments after Isa - by a keyblade to the chest. 

He stared down at Ventus, lying lifelessly on the bed. But could he? To destroy Roxas and lose his heart for someone he’d barely even met? 

“Why do I always get the icky jobs?” He mumbled. 

The keyblade came easily to his hand, as easily as his chakrams used to. There was a bang at the doorway, and he realised his time was up. Master Aqua had returned with everyone. 

He glanced only quickly at the door, eyes briefly meeting Riku’s. Then he plunged the blade into his chest. 

It burned, like Xemnas’s had frozen. It made sense. He was fire, he should burn himself. 

With a weak hand, he twisted the blade and it disappeared. As he felt back, he saw a tangle of glowing, coloured stars rising from his chest. 

And then the darkness swallowed him whole. 


	9. Waking

Ven opened his eyes to unfamiliar shouting. “What happened?” and “Where did he go?” and “What did he _do_?” 

Not recognising the strange machines or the stark white ceiling, he searched with his eyes until he found a familiar face. “…Aqua?” His voice came out as a painful croak. 

The room froze at the sound of his voice for a long moment – and then Aqua rushed to his side. “Ven!” She sounded teary, but her face was soon hidden from sight when she clutched him to her chest. “Ven…” 

“Aqua.” 

When she did eventually let him go, he stared past her at the two strangers. “Who are they?” 

“Oh! Ven this is Sora and Master Riku. They’re… self-taught keyblade wielders.” 

“Hi. I’m Ven.” He looked back to Aqua, once around the room, then back to her again. “What’s going on?” 

=/= 

Lea woke up in Hollow Bastion. Or… he wasn’t Lea anymore was he? He was Axel again. A nobody. 

The thought was followed by nothing – not even the fledgling emotions he’d begun to feel when he was Axel before. It caused a hollow laugh to escape his chest just thinking of it. He looked about and cast his hand out for his keyblade – but a chakram flamed to life in his grip instead. 

Yeah. That made sense. Keyblades were weapons for people with hearts. Xemnas had never used one. Only Roxas had been able to, and now they knew why. 

The pain he distinctly remembered flaring to life whenever he remembered Roxas never came. He gave a bitter little laugh. “Well thank _fuck_ for that.” Having a heart was only pain and suffering. Why had the organization ever wanted to get them back? 

Not that it had ever been the true goal. 

“Lea.” He knew that voice. Had known it for decades. 

He turned around and looked at Isa. No. Not Isa. Saïx, with the sickly yellow eyes. “Not quite,” he deadpanned. But he wasn’t exactly _Axel_ now, was he? 

“You’ll always be Lea to me.” Saïx stepped forward and offered him an outstretched hand. “Come, my dear old friend. I’ll take you back where you belong.” 

Lea didn’t laugh. Just threw a flaming chakram at the offering hand. “Forget about it. I remember everything that’s happened. I’ll never trust you again.” 

Saïx just lowered his smouldering hand. His eyes were sad. “If you mean what happened inside the computer world,” he said quietly. “It was merely an effort to reunite with you. To bring you back to my side.” 

Axel just snorted, loudly. “Shatter my heart so you could stuff me with Xemnas’s heart and turn me into a yellow-eyed freak like you?” He deadpanned. “No thanks. They won’t let me back on the good side now, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid enough to join the dark now.” 

Saïx lowered his hand, his entire expression becoming the same blank indifference he remembered so well. “Then I have only one use for you. Where did you hide Zexion?” 

He mimicked Sora, leaning back on his palms, elbows pointed skyward. “Zexion? Riku destroyed him in Castle Oblivion when Roxas was still around.” 

“You know very well what I mean, Axel,” Saïx replied impatiently. “Tell me, or I’ll—” 

“You’ll kill me?” Lea gave a lazy smile. “Sorry. You don’t scare me. Funny – _nothing_ scares me now. No heart. No feelings. Not that you’d ever know what that was really like.” He opened a portal under his feet, smirking lazily at his once-friend as he disappeared into the corridors of darkness. He yanked his hood up, disappearing into the shadows. No one could find him. 

Not that anyone would be anyway. 


	10. Heartless

“Heartless activity in Wonderland?” The dark-haired boy, the one who looked too much like Vanitas, was saying as he entered the informal meeting room in the Land of Departure. Or, that wasn’t what it was any more, Ven had been told. It was called Castle Oblivion now, thanks to the safety measures Aqua had put in place to protect him. “There hasn’t been heartless in Wonderland for months!” 

Mickey… that was, King Mickey, he’d learned, nodded solemnly. “We’re very concerned. When Axel defeated Maleficent after the computer world, we thought she was gone for good. But it there’s growing heartless activity in the worlds of the Seven Princesses, she may have returned.” 

Ventus shivered as he remembered her. The dark fairy who had brainwashed Terra and made him take Aurora’s heart. Having her around was not an experience he wanted to have. 

“Are we sure it’s her?” The light-haired one, Riku asked carefully. “Lea and I never saw signs of her when we were protecting the Enchanted Dominion.” Lea. He’d heard that name a couple times, but everyone seemed all too eager to avoid an explanation about who he was and where he had gone. 

“If it isn’t,” Aqua said wisely, “we should still investigate. Darkness grows too quickly for us to ignore a new beginning.” 

Riku gave a sigh, but nodded. “Alright. Sora should stay here and protect Kairi.” – who? – “If it is Maleficent, then we need to keep her hidden away. We can’t risk her being captured.” 

Sora protested. “I’ll go to Wonderland! I’ve been there before!” 

“Why don’t you two go together?” Aqua suggested. 

“Yeah!” Sora was nothing like Vanitus, really. He was light – bright and blinding and relentless. “Good idea, Aqua!” 

But Riku’s expression was carefully controlled, hiding away the emotions in his heart. Terra had used to be like. Where was Terra? Aqua had promised to tell him about it ‘later’. Something really bad must’ve happened – she would have told him, quietly and gently but honestly, that he’d died. Something worse than death. 

“No,” the other keyblade master said firmly. “If this is a trap, then two of our most powerful allies will be taken. We can’t risk it.” He looked stubborn. “We’re already one number down, if we lose another…” 

Ven cleared his throat, and the little knot of arguing wielders turned to look at him. “I’m here too. You’re not a number down.” 

The four of them glanced at each other, Riku’s expression cautiously approving. Aqua frowned, her jaw set stubbornly. “No,” she said coldly. “You’ve only just woken up. It’s not safe.” 

“Aqua, I’m staying in this crazy castle forever,” he argued. “I’ve got more training than Riku and Sora combined –” 

“Hey!” Sora argued, but Riku was wisely silent. 

“I can handle myself out there.” 

She opened her mouth to argue again, but Riku interrupted. “Me and Ven will go then. We’ll report back when we’ve got a handle on the situation.” 

… 

Wonderland was colourful and strange. Like nothing he’d ever seen before, like nothing his brain could wrap around. Sometimes he was tiny – like when he was in The Castle of Dreams and he was the size of a mouse. And other times he was the right size for the rest of the world. Riku was tall beside him – not quite as big as Terra, but a comforting height. 

There wasn’t too many of these heartless things – they wandered about the forest and only little ant-like creatures of darkness came out to attack them. ‘Shadows’, Riku called them. Most likely they were being drawn to the keyblades and not after the hearts of those in the world. 

Alice, a charming little girl with an almost unhinged smile, was more than capable of dealing with them with her little bursts of light. She was a princess of heart. One of the few people whose hearts were full of only pure light. But Riku seemed assured of her safety and they continued on the search. 

They visited with a hatmaker and a talking hare who celebrated all four of their unbirthday with cake and tea. Riku almost smiled. 

Afterwards, he announced they might as well head back. Ven followed with a slight smile relaxing across his face. It was nice to get out of the castle, and test his skills getting rid of the little shadows. 

They walked back into the room with the slumbering doorknob. And then they finally found it. The heartless was huge, long legs and bendy wild arms that twirled flaming batons. Riku fell back into a fighting stance, keyblade held horizontal by his head. 

It was tough. The two of them cast cure back and forth on one another, soothing burns and trying to beat the heartless down with blizzard spells and slashes with their keyblades. There was something so familiar about it. Flames twirling and long dark legs and arms. Like déjà vu. Or a memory just out of reach, a flash from a dream. 

He struck the final blow, through one of the fake smiling faces. The thing began to disintegrate, leaving behind a heart. It was cracked and strange, almost leaking red out of gaps. Riku watched it with a sort of disinterest, but it just floated there. Ven reached out, and Riku inhaled sharply. A soft cry of “don’t!” sounded just before his fingers touched the heart. 

Why had he expected it to feel cold and hard, like a jewel. That’s what it looked like. But it was warm, moved almost like liquid. It rippled as he touched it, colour misting through it. And then it exploded into ribbons of light, and they seemed to pierce into his skin, firing through his veins. 

A soft cry escaped his lips and he fell back. But it wasn’t like pain. It was like the gentle warm of the sun kissing his skin. Or the warmth of a camp fire. He was smiling. And crying? Heavy sobs heaving his chest, or were they laughs? 

“Relax,” a familiar voice murmured, his head resting in a lap. “Take deep breaths. Focus on what you’re thinking, not feeling.” 

Ven did, and slowly the weird feelings calmed down. He opened his eyes, looking up at Riku above him. “What’s going on?” 

The silver-haired wielder looked down at him. “Tall. Legs. Flames.” He took a deep breath. “Have they told you about Lea yet?” 

  



	11. Roxas

Ven let himself out of the castle while Aqua was still asleep. King Mickey knew where he was going. She was still way too overprotective of him. If she had her way, he’d be trapped inside the castle forever. Safe, out of the way, out of practice, and bored out of his mind. 

He knew it was impractical. They had some big final battle coming up, though he didn’t know all the details. They were even letting _Kairi_ out – with Sora and Donald and Goofy. Or sometimes with Riku and Sora together, when the other two were doing important business for the king. 

But he was tired of being locked away. So he’d told Mickey that Aqua had agreed he could go out to a low-activity world just to check up and make sure there were no clusters. It was a blatant lie, Aqua would never had agreed to it. But Mickey had told him how to get to the world he was assigned and gave him a potion and a curse spell for the journey. 

It wasn’t until he landed and saw it to be so familiar that he realised where it was. “Twilight Town?” He as _born_ in this world – had spent his childhood here before he’d become Xehanort’s apprentice. 

He wandered around, tracing the paths of his childhood and looking at new changes. He got déjà vu though – like he knew these buildings too. He _felt_ like he did, anyway. 

He came to a stop outside padlocked gates of the old orphanage. This was it. Where he’d been raised. He glanced at the curtained window, the old dormitory. But why was he expecting a girl to be standing in the window? 

He opened the gate with a brief flick of his keyblade. There was a strange feeling about this place, he couldn’t put a name to. It didn’t feel like the place he grew up in – but the crumbling columns and the wreckage inside didn’t feel unfamiliar either. 

Something wasn’t quite right. Had his heart absorbed so much being within Sora? They weren’t telling him exactly what had happened to his heart when it was restored. He had been meaning to ask that researcher about it. Ienzo? Zexion? But nobody seemed to think he was trustworthy enough for Ven to speak to. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a strange white being burst into existence. It was almost human, but it swayed and moved in a way no human ever could. He jumped back into a fighting stance, keyblade materializing in his hand. 

That turned out to be a bad idea. Dozens of the pale things appeared, swarming around him and swiping at him with deceptively sharp claws. 

He tried to make a run for it, but they intercepted him and tossed him back into the fray over and over again. His energy was flagging, he didn’t have any magic left for spells. A painful swipe across his chest had him stumbling back, glass cracking under the force of it. 

He crushed the potion in his hand, felt the wounds disappear and his energy restore just a bit. 

He held his keyblade between himself and the creatures. Maybe if he kicked back hard enough he could shatter the window. If he got out, went fast enough, he might be able to activate his glider and get away. 

Before he could think about how, he found himself falling backwards. There was a moment of complete darkness, then he was falling back into a strangely coloured corridor or light and darkness. 

Arms caught him and he fell against a tall, lanky body. The person steadied him onto his feet and stepped back. “The old mansion’s been locked up for a reason. It’s a Nobody territory now.” 

“Those white things?” Ven asked. 

“Haven’t they told you _anything_? Shit.” A gloved hand reached up, inside the hood, rubbing the back of the person’s head. He caught a flash of scarlet hair and really thin lips, before the hand withdrew and the shadows of the hood swallowed up their features again. “Go home. Tell Riku you were attacked and what they looked like. He’ll explain.” 

Ven looked up at them, or the darkness where their face was. “You know Riku?” 

The figure paused. “We’ve met once or twice.” Something about the voice… the accent, the cadence, the timbre. He felt like he _knew_ who it was. But he couldn’t pick a name. 

“Have we met?” Ven asked uncertainly. 

The stranger gave a bitter little laugh. **That** he didn’t recognize. “That’s… complicated. You and me? No. This is the first time we’ve come face to face. But in another life?” The laugh again. Arms folded over the skinny chest. “Where’s your ship?” 

Ven patted his pauldron. “Take it with me everywhere I go.” 

“Clever.” A long-fingered hand thrust out, and light pierced the hazy darkness, growing to a round portal of bright white light. Ven had no doubts it was the counterpart to the same thing he’d fallen through to get here. “You shouldn’t hang around too long. You haven’t got protection.” 

Ven hurried to the portal, but before he stepped through, he glanced back at the shadowy figure. “Who are you?” 

There was a long pause. “That’s a loaded question,” they answered eventually. “But… call me Roxas.” 

“Roxas.” The name was familiar, but it didn’t ring quite true. “Thank you, for saving me.” 

“Don’t count on it happening again,” ‘Roxas’ warned. 

Ven couldn’t help but grin. Somehow, he knew they’d be around for a while, making sure he didn’t get into too much trouble. He waved goodbye, and hurried through the portal back to the realm of light. 


End file.
